Industry Stocks: January Performances
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 2/7/2005
Industry Stocks: January Performances
Company
December 31
January 31
% Change
Winners
Reader's Digest
13.91
16.12
15.9%
Audible
26.05
27.87
7.0
Borders Group
25.40
26.25
3.3
Courier Corp.
51.92
52.28
0.7
Losers
Marvel
20.48
17.86
-12.8%
Advanced Marketing Svc.
10.06
9.25
-8.0
Scholastic
36.96
34.25
-7.3
Franklin Electronic Pub.
4.36
4.05
-7.1
R.R. Donnelley
35.29
33.45
-5.2
Publishers Weekly
Stock Index
587.35
577.41
-1.7%
Dow Jones Average
10,783.01
10,489.94
-2.7%
The repayment of $200 million in debt and an increase in its dividend from 20 cents to 40 cents per share helped put Reader's Digest in an unusual spot—atop the Publishers Weekly Stock Index, as its stock price rose 15.9% in January. Audible continued to benefit from the momentum of the iPod, which downloads Audible's content, and its stock price rose 7.0%. But January was overall a down month for the PWSI, with the stock price dropping at 18 companies and rising at only four. The 1.7% decline in the PWSI, however, was less than the 2.7% drop recorded by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The biggest loser in the month was Marvel, which faces the prospect of paying Spider-Man creator Stan Lee millions of dollars following a court ruling that the company owes him 10% of the profits from products that feature his characters. No news was bad news at AMS as the company has still not filed amended results for the past several years and its stock price fell 8.0% in the month.
Source: Reed Business Information
